Monday, 24 April 2017

Perth to Adelaide -Day 10 - Jerramungup

The weather has been pretty bad in Albany so I was grateful to not be out riding in it. Though the town seem all but shut down...barely anything open and all the accommodation somehow still full? I found a place but had to move on the 2nd night.

Still, the time was spent eating, resting, and updating the blog...so I was recharged and ready to roll again this morning.

This whole trip as a whole can be broken down into different stages, and in my original plans I'd budgeted 4 days to cycle the 480km from Albany to Esperance.
It's also a good opportunity to retest water and food needs before the Nullarbor, as this stretch is also quite sparse in terms of supplies.

It rained hard again overnight and a thick mist blanketed the land yet again when I set off at 7am

But, there were no headwinds unlike the last few days, so a big day looked possible. The road wound its way North East, heading inland from the coast and was quite undulating still. Thick scrub lined the road on both sides with a lot of stagnant water around, remnants of the floods in summer no doubt. The scrub seemed to go on forever as well. I was thinking how difficult it would have been to travel through here before roads.

Also I had my first experience of big road trains to share the bitumen with. They were very good drivers and no problem so long as nothing was coming from the other direction at the same time. When that happened, I'd pull over fast. There is no shoulder on this road but it felt much safer than previous days (between Denmark and Albany).

I got to a small roadhouse, the first possible water point 92km NE of Albany in really good time. So had some food and fluid and a bit of a walk around to stretch. It looked like a tough place to live so I take my hat off to the locals who all must be pretty hardy!

As the road continued, scrub eventually gave way to farmland and there were some flatter sections which were some relief. I ended up just keeping on riding till I hit Jerramungup, where there is a camp ground, and to my surprise a small IGA that I had missed when route planning.

At the camp ground the staff were full of tales of failed cyclists in the area...they had story after story to reel out:

- The girl who collapsed on their porch with heat exhaustion before giving up 4 days later
- 2 Scots who thought they could do the route staying in B&B's the whole way
- The couple on a tandem who were blown off the bike in a crosswind
- The Korean on an ultra expensive racing bike (but again, nothing to survive a night out)

It was a healthy mix of truth and banter, I was just surprised there were no snake stories thrown in!

Today was a long distance to ride as a tourer, but it was good to take advantage of much better weather conditions! Provided I can still move well tomorrow, this was a success. Now I need to eat...a lot!